How the Heck to iPhoto organize photos?

I have been having some big problems importing photos off my 1gb MicroDrive. I have the Canon image browser, and that kept freezing, so I tried iPhoto. IT MAKES NO SENSE! I went to find the files, looked in Pictures, iPhoto Library, and then there are folders with random numbers. 9, and 11. Then inside those folders, there are more folders with random numbers. This is the worst way to organize photos that there is. What is the thought process behind this and how can I stop it from happening?

Thanks! I'm a recent convert, and its little things like these that are really starting to bug me.

All I want is for all the photos off the card to go into ONE folder. NOT into the Mac "photos," but into another folder that I have created.

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Why can't you just move them when they're done. That's a pretty easy solution. If you don't like the way they are imported change it.

Also, I'm sure they are imported logically, you just probably don't see the relationships. I would give it a fairer chance, beucase I'm sure the app doesn't automatically suffle the pictures into folders with random numbers.

If you want to use iPhoto to look at your pics, then get used to looking at them through iPhoto's interface and not the Finder. Think of it like iTunes - you trust iTunes to look after your music without hunting through the Finder, it's the same with iPhoto. Use iPhoto as the image repository - you can edit from inside it (even with Photoshop etc), you can export images from it, you can mail images from it.

The random numbers aren't. iPhoto takes the only 'constant' it can for your images - the creation date. So, your images are stored as years, months, days in its subsystem - just like iTunes stores artists, albums, songs. Do not mess around in the Finder with your iPhoto library - it will corrupt it. iPhoto depends on a database file that it records information about your photos in. If you change something in the Finder, then it doesn't know you have and it will go loopy when it looks for the old info in its database and can't find it.

If you just want to get your pictures onto your Mac in a single folder (perhaps to rename or sort through before putting them into iPhoto), then use Image Capture (in your Applications folder) to download your images from your camera and save them where you specify.

If you want to use iPhoto to look at your pics, then get used to looking at them through iPhoto's interface and not the Finder. Think of it like iTunes - you trust iTunes to look after your music without hunting through the Finder, it's the same with iPhoto. Use iPhoto as the image repository - you can edit from inside it (even with Photoshop etc), you can export images from it, you can mail images from it.

The random numbers aren't. iPhoto takes the only 'constant' it can for your images - the creation date. So, your images are stored as years, months, days in its subsystem - just like iTunes stores artists, albums, songs. Do not mess around in the Finder with your iPhoto library - it will corrupt it. iPhoto depends on a database file that it records information about your photos in. If you change something in the Finder, then it doesn't know you have and it will go loopy when it looks for the old info in its database and can't find it.

If you just want to get your pictures onto your Mac in a single folder (perhaps to rename or sort through before putting them into iPhoto), then use Image Capture (in your Applications folder) to download your images from your camera and save them where you specify.

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Thank you, thats what I was looking for. I've previusly stated I don't like how iTunes manages music either. I have my own way of organizing things, I do it by artist and album, thats how I have always done it, thats how I will always do it. I have over 250 folders in my music directory.

Anyway, I don't like iPhoto either. How can I stop it from automatically opening when I stick in my card reader? I'm going to have to try this image capture thing, thanks

Thank you, thats what I was looking for. I've previusly stated I don't like how iTunes manages music either. I have my own way of organizing things, I do it by artist and album, thats how I have always done it, thats how I will always do it. I have over 250 folders in my music directory.

Anyway, I don't like iPhoto either. How can I stop it from automatically opening when I stick in my card reader? I'm going to have to try this image capture thing, thanks

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When I first switched, I wasn't too keen on how iTunes and iPhoto did things and tried to organise things. I've mellowed; unlike my old PC, I trust my Mac to keep track of things so I rarely use the Finder. Spotlight can find things in my open/save dialogues quicker than I can navigate through the folder structure anyhow. The difference is in iTunes, you don't have to import into the iTunes library but in iPhoto you do have to.

If you open up Image Capture and go to Preferences, you can tell your Mac what to do when you insert the card reader. 'Open iPhoto', 'Open Image Capture' or 'Nothing'. It can, very cleverly, remember settings for each different camera/card reader that you use.

For Instance, I have my music folder, inside that I have a Black Eyed Peas folder, and inside there I have 3 folders, Bridging the Gap, Elephunk, and Monkey Buisness. I also have 10 songs that don't belong to any albums inside the parent Black Eyed Peas Folder.

This way, when I want to make a mixed CD, I can find exactly what I want, where I want it.

For Instance, I have my music folder, inside that I have a Black Eyed Peas folder, and inside there I have 3 folders, Bridging the Gap, Elephunk, and Monkey Buisness. I also have 10 songs that don't belong to any albums inside the parent Black Eyed Peas Folder.

This way, when I want to make a mixed CD, I can find exactly what I want, where I want it.

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Um...nope. iTunes does it the exact same way. I dig through the folders (I really need to remember to use spotlight for more than documents and email) when I copy home-made music from my computer to my wife's. I think what has you concerned is that from the music folder you go to itunes library to the oasis that you love.

That's exactly how iTunes organizes it. And when you edit names and album titles in iTunes, it automatically renames and re-organizes those source files and folders to reflect the change. It is infinitely faster than doing it by hand in the finder.

Just check 'keep iTunes folder organized' and 'copy to iTunes musci folder when importing' and you'll be all set.

Hard drives are becoming too large and media collections to immense to keep organizing everything yourself. Save yourself the headache and just try using iTunes and iPhoto to manage those things for you. If you don't like it after two weeks go back to doing it your way. Personally, I like that I never have to go hunting. Especially for photos since they are so difficult to really organize.

My wife was the same way when she got her Mac Mini. She wanted to upload pics to Flickr so she opened up the photos folder and started up on how iPhoto had screwed up her organization. So I said (not knowing she wanted to upload to flickr) if she wanted the files, just drag the pictures from iPhoto and put them where she wanted them in Finder and do stuff with them there. She said "so to upload to Flickr, I have to move them from one place to another before I can upload them???" So then I gave her the Flickr plugin. She now officially loves iPhoto.

You're missing the whole point of iTunes, iPhoto, etc. The app ORGANIZES your files, but they're organized in the actual app, why would you care about how they are organized in the Finder?

For example, you open iPhoto and all your pics are there, you can sort them anyway you want... date, title, rating, etc. In the finder they're just in one folder, and sub-organized by year, month, day... but you're not suppose to be looking there, if you want to do something with a picture besides viewing it (like e-mailing it), then use iPhoto (not the finder), select it and click "Mail" at the bottom toolbar.

If none of the buttons in the toolbar offer you the action that you want to do (let's say you want to send it to a friend using a messenger) just drag it to the desktop and easily use it there. Stop looking for the files in the iPhoto Library folder!, that folder is there just to place them in one place, not to browse them. If you want to browse them then use iPhoto.

Don't worry about the iPhoto Library folder, that's doing OK in the background, all your imported pics are automatically placed there by iPhoto.

The exact same thing goes with iTunes, stop looking for your files in the iTunes library folder, use the actual iTunes app, that's what it was made for.

My point is, the idea is to worry about only one way to organize you files, so either use iApps to organize your files and let the apps do their thing in the Finder, or forget about those apps and do all by yourself in the Finder.

I'm not really up to rehashing the whole debate, but many people take issue with the way iPhoto organizes source files, while not many have a problem with iTunes. Music and photos lend themselves to being organized differently. iPhoto's organization is crippling to a lot of people, and annoying as hell. Why should I have to duplicate an image to do certain things with it? Why can't I rename an image? I should at least be able to find them in the finder, or in Photoshop's image browser, or in any app using file>open.... iTunes is different because you really only use that one app for your audio files, and if you really had to, you could easily and logically dig for them in the finder.

I'm not really up to rehashing the whole debate, but many people take issue with the way iPhoto organizes source files, while not many have a problem with iTunes. Music and photos lend themselves to being organized differently. iPhoto's organization is crippling to a lot of people, and annoying as hell. Why should I have to duplicate an image to do certain things with it? Why can't I rename an image? I should at least be able to find them in the finder, or in Photoshop's image browser, or in any app using file>open.... iTunes is different because you really only use that one app for your audio files, and if you really had to, you could easily and logically dig for them in the finder.

Looking forward to a Mac release of Picassa. Or is there one?

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Yeah, that is basically where I am.

Plus, I am a big photochop user, and I create droplets. If I don't know where the actual FILE is, then I can't drag it into a droplet to do what I want with it. Usually I use a droplet on a whole folder of images. I have them organized by event, not date, title, or whatever else you can organize them in iPhoto with.

I think decksnap was right on point. I want to be able to go to file, open; and find what I want to open.

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